


Mama Rosa

by mozbee



Category: Shazam! (2019)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-04-28
Updated: 2019-04-28
Packaged: 2020-02-08 15:41:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,935
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18626236
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mozbee/pseuds/mozbee
Summary: “Hey,” Billy said. Freddy turned from where he was shoving clothes unfolded into his dresser.“Yeah?”“Doesn’t Rosa work every day?”“Monday to Friday,” Freddy nodded. “Why?”Billy frowned. “She was here with me all day.” Freddy stared at him, uncomprehending. “She should have been at work,” Billy pointed out.Freddy scoffed, turning back to his overloaded dresser. “Dude, you were sick. No way she was going anywhere.”





	Mama Rosa

 

The van pulled alongside the curb, a mighty shuffling of backpacks carrying out as doors were opened and closed. Billy sat in the back, waiting for his foster siblings to crawl out.

 

“Billy!” He stopped, hand on the door, about to step out. Rosa flashed him a quick grin from the front. “Don’t forget your lunch.” He stared uncomprehendingly at the paper bag held out to him.

 

“Uh, thanks,” he said after a moment of hesitation. Rosa waved him off.

 

“I’ll be here after school. Have a good day.”

 

Bewildered, Billy climbed out of the van, easily catching up to Freddy. “Dude,” he said, and Freddy turned. Billy held up the lunch sack.

 

“Did Rosa make your lunch, too?”

 

Freddy gave him a weird look. “Yeah,” he said, resuming his shuffle to the front doors of the school. “She always makes our lunch.”

 

Billy frowned at the bag in his hand. “Why?” Freddy looked lost.

 

“She always does,” he repeated, looking confused. He walked off to class, leaving Billy in the lobby, frowning at nothing.

 

“Huh,” he said to himself.

-

-

-

Billy rubbed his forehead, the headache he’d had since dinner getting worse. The words in his history textbook were blurring together. He jumped when a soft hand touched his shoulder.

 

“Sorry,” Rosa said, giving him a sheepish grin. “I didn’t mean to scare you.” She cocked her head to the side. “Are you feeling all right?”

 

Billy nodded. “Just have a headache,” he muttered, frowning down at the paragraph on the Romans. Rosa tsked and bustled out of the room. Billy tapped his pen in the margin of his notebook, eyes unfocused. A glass of water was set in front of him, with a bottle of aspirin.

 

“Take two,” Rosa smiled down at him, “they work fast.” Billy blinked at her offerings.

 

“Oh,” he said dumbly. “Thanks.” She lightly pressed her hand to the top of his head, giving it a quick stroke.

 

“Maybe knock off early,” she suggested, nodding at his homework. Billy nodded, awkward. She left the room, and he heard her talking to Victor in the kitchen, bright and cheery.

 

He took two pills and went to bed.

-

-

-

Billy was curled up on Freddy’s bed, legs still shaky from his steps down the ladder when the bedroom door was slowly pushed open. Rosa leaned into the room, then hurried in when she saw him laying there. “Billy, how are you feeling?”

 

“All right,” he tried to say, but his voice was a dry croak. Rosa made a face and reached for his forehead.

 

“I was afraid of that. Freddy said he couldn’t wake you up.”

 

“Sorry,” Billy muttered, sitting up. His head spun, and Rosa took his shoulders and laid him back down.

 

“Don’t be silly,” she fussed over tucking him back into bed. “There’s nothing to be sorry for. Would you feel up to eating something? I can warm up some soup, or if you just want crackers…”

 

Billy blinked at her, his stomach twisting. “Um,” he said when he realized he still hadn’t answered, “I guess some crackers would be okay?”

 

She smiled. “Soda crackers?”

-

-

-

Billy sat wrapped in a blanket on the couch in the living room, sipping at the mug of soup Rosa had brought him. After eating the crackers earlier, it had awoken his hunger, even if all he could stomach was chicken noodle soup. It felt like heaven, hot soup sliding down his aching throat to settle pleasantly in his belly. Rosa came in with a glass of ginger ale, setting it on the coffee table in front of the couch.

 

“The soup going down okay?” she asked. Billy nodded, wiping a drop off his bottom lip. “Do you want anything else?”

 

“No, thank you,” he said, pulling his legs closer to himself under the blanket. She glanced at the tv, playing a dreary newscast.

 

“Feel like watching a movie?”

 

Billy shrugged. “Like what?”

 

She grinned at him. “What’s your favourite?”

 

He felt a blush creep up his neck, warming his cheeks. “You choose,” he said, because that sounded better than _I don’t have a favourite. I wasted the last ten years chasing after someone who didn’t want me to find her, I never had time for movies._ Rosa tapped her chin thoughtfully.

 

“Bet I have the perfect one.”

 

Five minutes later, she was in the armchair beside the couch, settling in to watch ‘Homeward Bound’ with him. Billy made a face when he saw the animals, heard their corny voices, inwardly groaning at the idea of sitting through this kids’ movie. Maybe he could pretend to fall asleep. He certainly wasn’t expecting to be feeling so bad when the dog got the porcupine quills shot in his face. And he _definitely_ wasn’t prepared for the misting of his eyes when Shadow came limping over the hill to be reunited with his family. Rosa had buried her face in her hands at that scene, laughingly telling Billy not to look at her, that she was a crybaby.

 

Later that night, while Billy lay in bed and listened to Freddy moving around the room, a thought occurred to him. “Hey,” he said. Freddy turned from where he was shoving clothes unfolded into his dresser.

 

“Yeah?”

 

“Doesn’t Rosa work every day?”

 

“Monday to Friday,” Freddy nodded. “Why?”

 

Billy frowned. “She was here with me all day.” Freddy stared at him, uncomprehending. “She should have been at work,” Billy pointed out.

 

Freddy scoffed, turning back to his overloaded dresser. “Dude, you were sick. No way she was going anywhere.”

 

Billy frowned at the ceiling and said nothing.

-

-

-

“Billy?” He jerked his head up at the soft voice. Rosa was leaning into the room. Her face crumpled when she saw him. “Oh, _mijo_ ,” she breathed, rushing over to him, worried eyes taking in the scrapes on his face, his black eye. “What happened?”

 

Before Billy could answer, the door to the principal’s office swung open. Rosa stood. “I’ll be right back,” she told him, eyes flashing.

 

By the time the door to Principal Peach’s office opened again, Billy was blushing from the amount of swear words he’d heard.

-

-

-

“I don’t _care_!” Billy winced at Rosa’s raised voice from where he sat on the stairs, hidden. “I am so sick and tired of these, these _sadists_ bullying our children!”

 

“I know, and I am too,” came Victor’s soothing voice, “but reacting without thinking is only going to make it worse. For _everyone_ ,” he emphasized. Rosa huffed an annoyed breath.

 

“It makes me want to keep them all home all the time,” she sighed. “Just homeschool them. Keep them from the ugly in the world.”

 

Billy tried but couldn’t hold back his sneeze. He froze on his perch, halfway up the stairs.

 

“Hello?” he heard Rosa say, footsteps coming from the kitchen. Billy wasted too much time trying to decide if he would have time to make a run for it and dive under the covers on his bed, leaving Rosa to wonder which of her six kids had been eavesdropping. But he didn’t move in time, and he was like a deer in headlights when she rounded on him. “Billy? What are you doing up?”

 

“I’m sorry,” he said quickly, getting to his feet. “I’m going back to bed, I—”

 

“Billy,” Rosa rushed up the stairs to him, crouching to meet him at eye level, “is something wrong? Is it your eye? I knew we should have gone to the hospital,” she said lowly, looking at him with so much care that he had to look away.

 

“No, I’m okay,” he told her quickly. “I just, I couldn’t sleep,” he mumbled. Rosa reached out and rubbed his shoulders.

 

“Let’s get you back to bed,” she suggested. He nodded and stood, feeling stupid, feeling bad for causing more problems for her. To his immense shock, Rosa followed him into his room closing the door quietly behind her so as not to wake Freddy. She waited while he laid in bed, reaching through the railing to pull the blanket up under his chin, and then stroked the side of his face in a gesture so tender Billy felt his stomach swoop.

 

“Goodnight,” he said, and quickly rolled on his side to face the wall. He closed his eyes.

 

“Goodnight, Billy,” she said quietly. The door clicked shut behind her. Billy pressed his face into his pillow, holding a hand over the cheek she had touched, fingers trembling.

 

“Billy?” Freddy’s voice, thick with sleep, floated up. He sounded confused. “Are you crying?”

 

Billy inhaled shakily, silently. “No.”

-

-

-

_“Mr. George?”_

 

Billy’s history teacher paused in his lecture. “Yes?”

 

The secretary’s voice came over the PA box again. “ _Can you send Billy Batson to the office, please? Have him bring his things.”_

 

The class erupted into _ooh_ s as he stuffed his books in his bag and stood. He walked to the office, racking his brain, trying to think of what he had done, if anything, recently to warrant a trip to Peach, or ‘Peachy’ as her more familiar students called her. He pushed open the glass door to the secretary’s desk, in a small room stuffed with filing cabinets, a frosted glass door in the back proclaiming PRINC  PAL.

 

Mrs. Walters smiled at him. “Your mom is here to pick you up, Billy.” She pushed a clipboard to the edge of her desk. “You just need to sign out.”

 

Billy stared at her, heart pounding. “What,” he said numbly. She gave him a funny look.

 

“I said your mother is here—” Rosa suddenly burst into the room, apologizing, _it took me forever to park the van,_ and she leaned around Billy to sign her name on the clipboard, passing him the pen.

 

“Did you forget you have a dentist appointment?” she asked him. Then winked. Billy looked back uncomprehendingly.

 

“Dentist appointment?” he asked. “Oh.” He scribbled his name underneath hers and Mrs. Walters smiled at them and turned back to her computer.

 

“Come on,” Rosa nudged against him. He followed her out of the office, head spinning, the cold sweat on the back of his neck drying, feeling returning to his knees now that he knew who Mrs. Walters had meant by _your mother_.

 

For one heart-stopping moment, Billy had thought it was going to be another woman walking into the office to claim him.

 

He didn’t know what he had been hoping for.

 

He tugged open the sliding door but Rosa said “Sit up front with me,” something Billy rarely got to do, and he sat in the passenger seat instead, dropping his backpack at his feet. Rosa jumped in on the other side, starting the van with an excited rev.

 

“So,” she said, turning in her seat to face him, beaming widely, “what do you want to do?”

 

“What?” Billy asked, confused. “We’re—” he pointed out the window— “we’re going to the dentist, aren’t we?”

 

Rosa giggled into her hands, eyes flashing. “I may have told a _tiiiny_ little fib.” When Billy still stared blankly, she swatted his arm lightly, excited. “We’re playing hooky!”

-

-

-

“Whoa,” Freddy said, coming into their room after dinner, finishing an ice cream cone. “Where’d you get that shirt?”

 

Billy looked down at himself, tugging at the hem of his red shirt. “Rosa got it for me,” he said. He was well aware of how he looked, standing there wearing the symbol of his alter ego on a t-shirt, but Rosa had insisted on buying it when she’d found it at a stall along the boardwalk after their ride on rented bikes around the park. Billy’s legs were wobbly from an hour of pedaling, but he didn’t say anything, didn’t want to go in the van and go home.

 

He had loved every minute of his day out, loved the attention from Rosa, talked more to her than he ever had before, something easy about their conversations. He felt relaxed, happy.

 

Loved.

 

He shook himself out of his reverie when Freddy make a panicked sound. “Dude,” he hissed, eyes darting to the door, “do you think that’s her way of telling you she knows?”

 

“Knows what?”

 

Freddy bugged his eyes out. “That she _knows_ ,” and he gestured furiously at the lightning bolt on Billy’s shirt, ice cream dripping down his wrist.

 

“Oh,” Billy said. He gulped. “I didn’t think of that.”

 

“How badly did she want to get you that?” Freddy asked, crossing the room and closing the door. He licked at his cone, watching Billy intently.

 

“Uh, like, pretty bad I guess?” Billy tried to think back. “I said she didn’t have to but she said—dude, I cannot think with you staring at me like that.” He turned from Freddy, lost in thought.

 

“What?” Freddy cried indignantly. “I’m sorry, I’m taking an interest in what you’re telling me, that’s so _creepy_ ,” he cut off and muttered to himself. Billy snorted.

 

“Do you think she knows?” he asked, stomach fluttering.

 

Freddy crunched the end of his cone and grunted. “I think if she knew, there would be no way she wouldn’t tell you she knew.” He shuffled over to drop in the desk chair, a smear of chocolate at the side of his mouth.

 

“You don’t think she would wait for me to go to her and tell her on my own?” Billy asked. “So it wasn’t like she was, I don’t know, trying to rush me or something?”

 

Freddy poked at the smudge of ice cream with his tongue. He shrugged. “That’s a very real possibility.”

 

“Freddy,” Billy groaned, pacing the room. “You’re not helping.” He jumped at Freddy’s sudden violent gasp.

 

“She took you out for hooky, didn’t she?” he demanded. “There was no _dentist appointment_ ,” he scoffed. “That’s why she bought ice cream,” Freddy slammed a fist into his palm. “I knew it.”

 

“Is that something she does a lot?” Billy asked. Who scheduled a day to play hooky? With their kid, no less?

 

Freddy waggled his hand in front of him. “She tries not to, but like, if you did really good on a test you thought you were going to bomb, or if you’ve been having a hard time with something lately, then she’ll usually do it. And we all pretend like Victor doesn’t know and that if he did he wouldn’t approve of it,” he added with a grin. Billy frowned.

 

“Why?”

 

“Cause that’s what Victor says dads do,” Freddy replied. ”That’s also why he wears tall socks with his sandals when he mows the lawn.”

 

Billy nodded like he understood.

-

-

-

Billy was jostled to the side, losing his grip on the hand he clung to. “Hey!” he said, his voice high. He was pushed along in the crowd, fighting to stay standing as he was bumped and shoved. “Hey!”

 

He searched the crowd desperately, looking for something important, something he could feel getting further and further away. He tried to push his way through the crowd but they kept coming, anonymous faces surrounding him.

 

“Hey,” he said again, and his voice shook. There were so many people, pressing against him, pushing him along. He couldn’t feel his feet, didn’t register that he was standing. All he knew was movement, being shoved incessantly. His heart kicked a funny beat.

 

Suddenly, there was a hand holding his, and he grabbed at it, squeezing it tightly, desperately. Someone was pulling him along and he hurried after them. He looked up to see them, but all he saw were endless legs, stretching into eternity. He was pulled free from the crowd and—

 

“Holy shit dude you’re gonna break my fingers,” Freddy was complaining. Billy blinked at him through the railing. He looked down and saw his arm stuck out in the air, Freddy’s hand held in his own. Billy quickly let go, palm sweaty.

 

“What happened?” Billy asked, scrubbing at his eyes. His heart pounded, and adrenaline raced through him. He felt unnerved, unsettled.

 

Freddy gave him a sympathetic look, moving away from the bunk bed to lean against his desk. “You were talking in your sleep,” he said, and Billy felt his face colour. “I think you were having a…nightmare?”

 

Billy sat up, his sheets damp with sweat. “Yeah,” he muttered, climbing down quickly.

 

“Where are you going?” Freddy asked quietly. “Billy?” Billy tugged open the door and hurried down the hall to the bathroom. He shut the door behind him and sat on the floor, pressing his back against the cool tub.

 

He pressed his face into his drawn in knees, breathing heavily to quell the sick feeling rushing over him. It wasn’t often that he had that nightmare, lost in a faceless crowd, untethered, searching but never finding. Tonight was different. Tonight, he had been found. Someone had grabbed his hand and pulled him to the edge of the crowd He knew who he used to wish it was. Now, he felt like he knew who it was, and he felt on edge.

 

Rosa was acting like a mother to him, for him, because of him. Things he used to find weird were becoming the norm. He was starting to sit around the table with everyone else and feel like he belonged. He was starting to expect the little hugs, the touches of affection, fingers through his hair, all thing that the tactile Rosa was generous with. No child unloved, that was her motto.

 

Even if they weren’t blood. Even if they drove their birth mother away. Even if—

 

There was a faint knock on the door. “Billy?” His heart clenched at Rosa’s soft words. “Are you all right?”

 

“I’m fine,” he called back, twisting his pajama pants between his fingers.

 

“Is it all right if I come in?”

 

Billy shrugged before he remembered she couldn’t see him. “Kay,” he said, watching the door open with a flutter of anticipation in his chest. Rosa slid in, shutting the door tight. Her own bright red shirt hung loosely around her, and immediately he smelled that distinctly Rosa scent, sweetly fruity like she had lain on a pile of fruit salad before getting up.

 

She sat wordlessly next to him on the floor, her thigh barely brushing his. “Do you know why ‘Homeward Bound’ is my favourite movie?” she asked. She continued without waiting for an answer. “Because at the start, the animals are afraid that they’ve been abandoned, but they don’t accept it. And even though the whole movie they’re pushed back one step for every two they take, they keep going. Because they won’t accept that they’ve been left behind.” She turned her head a fraction, just enough so she could see him out of the corner of her eye. “And it all works out.” Rosa laughed, reaching to wipe away a threatening tear. “Just talking about it gets me going,” she exhaled. “Do you know why, sometimes, I hate that movie?”

 

Billy shook his head, keeping his gaze fixed on Rosa’s left wrist, on the small gold bracelet wrapped around it.

 

“Because they get their happily ever after,” she said. “And I never thought I would.” She laid a hand on Billy’s leg, her fingers warm through his pants. “And then one day I met Victor, and that just—” she flung her fingers out, an explosion. She smiled at Billy. “Everything that followed was my happily ever after. Including you,” she nudged against his side.

 

Billy inhaled, wet his lips, and spoke. “I miss my mom.” He froze, surprised by his own words. He hadn’t meant to say that. Rosa squeezed his leg but said nothing. His breath hitched in his chest. “I know I shouldn’t, I know I sh-should be able to get over her, move on like she did,” his lip trembled, remembering how dismissive she had been, how eager to get him away from her doorstep. He clenched his hands. “I don’t know why I still want her back,” he finished in a whisper, bowing his head.

 

“Because,” Rosa said, voice gentle, “she was the first you knew of love, and loss. Sometimes, those can be the same thing. But Billy,” she placed a soothing hand on his back, rubbing slow circles, “you don’t have to ‘get over’ her. You only found her a few months ago. I would honestly be surprised if you had any kind of closure at this point.”

 

Billy was quiet for a minute, trying to reign in his wild emotions. “Why,” he started, voice small, still staring down at his lap, “why do I still love her?”

 

“It is much harder to stop loving someone than to start,” Rosa sighed. “I don’t think I’ve told you about my papa, have I?” Billy shook his head. “When I was five, he picked me up from school and said we were going on a trip, just me and him. I was so excited,” she smiled, lost in the past, “I was so excited to have time alone with him. My mother was sick and couldn’t take care of my brothers and I very well, and papa was so busy working that when he finally was home, everyone wanted a piece of him. But, he picked me up from school, and I got to sit in the bucket seat of his car.

 

“He was in such a good mood,” Rosa reflected, absently turning the locket on her neck over. “We went to the beach. There was an old snack shack that we went in. He said maybe there would be forgotten candy. But when we went in, there were two men.” She swallowed and Billy felt his heart drop. He was afraid of what was next. “My papa owed the drug cartel a lot of money. He couldn’t pay them, and they were going to kill him. So, instead, he worked out a deal. I went to the beach with my father, and he left without me.” She gave Billy a watery smile. “And I still love him. Even though I shouldn’t. Even though he gave me a damn good reason not to.”

 

“That’s…” Billy trailed off. “That’s horrible.”

 

“I didn’t tell you that to make you feel bad for me, Billy,” Rosa said, taking his hand and lacing their fingers together, “I told you so you would know, you aren’t alone when it comes to loving someone you think you shouldn’t. And that, even now, if you love her, there’s nothing wrong with that. Just don’t let it consume you, hmm?”

 

Billy nodded rapidly, the knot in his chest loosening incrementally. “It’s her loss anyway, right?” he muttered. Rosa gripped his hand tight.

 

“One _thousand_ per cent,” she promised. “And it’s our gain.” They sat in silence for some time, the small room filled with the sounds of their breathing, the soft clacking of Rosa’s earrings tapping against each other whenever she turned her head.

 

“The secretary called you my mom,” Billy blurted. “She said my mom was there to pick me up.” Rosa sighed.

 

“Oh, Billy, I’m sorry, they must have listed me wrong. I’ll call the school tomorrow and get them to change it.”

 

“It’s okay,” Billy said, watching her face. “I…I don’t mind.” Rosa’s eyes filled with tears and she quickly turned her head, dabbing at her eyes with her fingers. She gave him a watery smile.

 

“Can I…?” she trailed off as she leaned forward, and he raised his own arms to hug her back, feeling her arms tighten around his sides, her hands pressed against him. “I love you, Billy,” she said softly.

 

Billy blinked away his own tears and smiled into her shoulder.

 

“Love you too.” _Mom_.

**Author's Note:**

> Rosa! That's all I have to say.  
> If you liked it, tell me why. If you didn't like it, tell me why :))))  
> *anyone following the five times fic, that will be updated by Wednesday*


End file.
